Battle of Corunna

The Battle of Corunna was a battle of the Peninsular War which was fought on 16 January 1809. The British army of John Moore was attacked by the French marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult as it attempted to evacuate the Iberian Peninsula at the Galician port of Corunna, but Moore and 900 of his men sacrificed themselves to ensure that the majority of the British army was evacuated intact. The French failed to destroy the British army, but they forced the last British troops to leave Spain and occupied the entirety of northern Spain.

Background
Following the Battle of Somosierra on 30 November 1808, the Spanish capital of Madrid fell to Napoleon I's French army, and Napoleon proceeded to disperse his armies across the Iberian Peninsula to occupy the entirety of Spain and Portugal; there were no Spanish field armies able to check their advance. However, John Moore's British and Portuguese army remained intact, and they marched from Lisbon toward Madrid with the goal of relieving the city; however, they were too late to assist its defenders, and they instead withdrew north towards the Galician coast. Moore and his army clashed with Marshal Nicolas Soult's French army in the 21 December 1808 Battle of Sahagun, where they captured 300 French cavalrymen in a cavalry clash, but, in doing so, Moore and his army had given away their positions to the larger French army. Napoleon sent reinforcements to Soult and personally led 36,000 troops to cut off Moore's retreat, hoping to destroy the British army. Moore's army withdrew northwest to the Galician port of Corunna, where the Royal Navy waited to evacuate his army. Napoleon was delayed by bad weather and poor road conditions, but Soult's army pursued the British through the rugged mountains of northern Spain; the British were forced to abandon many of their supply trains, leaving the British with little food, ammunition, or winter clothing as they encamped in the snowy mountains of Galicia. The British cavalry fought brilliantly in rearguard actions, but the British had reached the low point of the war, losing 5,000 men during their retreat. By 11 January 1809, most of Moore's troops were safely inside Corunna, fortifying the town and preparing for the evacuation. Soult assembled his army outside Corunna on 14 January and prepared to destroy Moore's remaining forces.

Battle
On 15 January, Moore positioned his 15,000 troops to the south of Corunna, with his center being positioned on the hill of Monte Mero. Soult's 16,000 troops pushed back the advanced British forces and taking the heights of Penasquedo and Pelaveo. The British took up positions opposite of them, and the French planned to take Elvina at the center of the British line; rain forced the two sides to delay the battle for another day. Thinking that Soult did not have enough troops to attack with, Moore decided to ramp up the evacuation, sending 3,000 troops under Henry Paget towards the city. However, Soult's cavalry formed up on the Monte de Mesoiro, threatening the British right; Paget and his men were recalled from the city to hold the Heights of San Margarita. The French artillery began to bombard the British lines, and the French assaulted and captured Elvina. The British, backed by reinforcements, counterattacked against the French around Elvina; the village changed hands a number of times. After the British commander William Bentinck was wounded, Moore took his place on the front lines. Soult then sent his reserves and the cavalry on the extreme left to flank the British at Elvina, leading to Moore sending Paget and Alexander Mackenzie Fraser to cover the flank of the troops at Elvina. Shortly after, Moore was struck by a cannonball and mortally wounded. The whole of the French left was forced to retreat to avoid being outflanked, and nightfall ended the battle. 1,000 French and over 1,000 British were lost, but the British had bought themselves the time that they needed to evacuate the last units by 18 January.

Aftermath
Shortly after, Napoleon returned to France due to rumors of a coup plot in Paris and of another coalition forming against him in Central Europe. Napoleon's 1808-1809 campaign in Spain was a triumph, but he had failed to definitively end the conflict, and the Peninsular War would continue for years.